Toyland Tours was a former attraction in the Talbot Street area of the Alton Towers theme park, Staffordshire, England, featuring Sonic the Hedgehog.

Description

The ride is split into twelve segments, the ninth being the Sonic segment called "Sonic at Alton". As the boat rides through a tunnel you can see Sonic the Hedgehog standing on a Sega Master System controller and moving the joystick around while also tapping his foot it is now the music switches from the Bubbly remix of the track to a Sonic remix made up of sounds from Classic Sonic Games and even has Green Hill Zone's melody for a few seconds. The room is filled with glowing rings and cartoon like machinery it appears to be inspired by the Bad Futures from Sonic the Hedgehog CD, Giant Square TV's play footage from Sonic CD and later Sonic the Hedgehog 3 which at the time of the rides construction was coming soon. Badniks can also be seen being smashed and spinning around it is at this point that the Sonic section ends as the boat rides out onto the Medieval section of the Toy Factory.

History

The attraction was opened in 1994, replacing Around the World in 80 Days and took riders on a boat tour of a toy factory, past scenes of a Snailextrics circuit, Bouncy Castles (with the castles doing the bouncing),. The soundtrack to the ride, composed by Graham Smart, was available to buy in the park on tape and CD.

Over the years the ride and especially the Sonic section got very outdated in 2005 the ride still had Sonic's classic design and still continued to play Sonic the Hedgehog 3 footage on the TV's and the Sonic animatronic lost a lot of it abilities as it used to turn its head and move the joystick around on the Master System controller

It was closed in 2005; the following year it was replaced by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Ride.